BEg2 Chapter 3 Deseret

[Mark Kohut]

And it is all about Religion!....more 'true believing" and also in this
case nationalist notions re their theocracy....

I had no idea, thank ye, thank ye....

On Fri, Nov 12, 2021 at 9:41 AM Allen Ruch <quail at shipwrecklibrary.com>
wrote:

> I know it’s been mentioned here that “Deseret” means “honeybee” in
> Mormonspeak. I didn’t see the following discussed, so I thought I’d chime
> in:
>
> The term itself (pronounced with a hard “t,” not like a French word:
> Gentiles often make that mistake) comes from the Book of Mormon, and means
> “honeybee” in the language of the Jaredites. Why is this interesting?
> Because the Jaredites were exiled to America after the fall of the Tower of
> Babel, so we have the whole “tower” connection there. Also, the Jaredite
> language received a pass from God on the whole scramble-thing, so it still
> remains pure. An unbroken vessel of language, so to speak.
>
> Deseret also has a significant political meaning. Back in the 1840s, when
> the Mormons (some might argue reasonably) wanted to secede from the Unite
> States, they proposed to create the Nation of Deseret. (Sometimes this is
> referred to as a kingdom, and sometimes a republic. It depends on who’s
> doing the proposing.) In any event, they did declare a State of Deseret,
> which was larger than Utah and had its own flag. It didn’t last too long,
> as the federal government took a dim view of such expansionist ideas when
> coming from people even crazier than themselves.
>
> To this day, the idea of a separate Deseret has a romantic, nostalgic ring
> to some Mormons, and to many genre writers as well! There have been dozens
> of independent Deserets in various alternative history narratives.
>
> And possibly most interesting to Pynchon fans, there’s George Watt’s
> “Deseret alphabet.” Back in the late 1840s, the Mormons devised a
> replacement for the English alphabet. It’s too complicated to get into
> here, but you can have fun here:
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deseret_alphabet
>
> http://www.deseretalphabet.org
>
> Needless to say, this “Mormon code” has intrigued many people to this day.
> Some may even know it by heart! Some people on this very List, perhaps?
>
> And finally, just to point out, Pynchon calling the hotel “The Deseret”
> brings to mind the Mormons, sure, in some ways the ultimate “white
> Americans:” and yet, unlike WASPs, they have a word for non-Mormons that
> Maxine would understand: Gentiles.
>
> —Quail
>
>
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>